Dispensing device



Sept. 7, 1937. R. c. KETTLES, JR

DISPENSING DEVICE Q r w \4 9 h S Z 1 Y t 1 w/ RS V E 6 Q l 6 N e 9 r a Iw; 2 6, y MW 3 W m s ,1 v6 T. m r 2 222 I mK A mm 01/ a 2. nfl

Original Filed June 22, 1934 v WITNESSES 56w. Qz

Sept. 7, 1937. R. c. KETTLES, JR

DISPENSING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Yfi. aljeZ /eS l: B

Original Filed June 22, 1934 Patented Sept. 7, 1937 PATENT OFFICEDISPENSING DEVICE Richard C. Kettles, Jr., Glen Head, N. Y.

Application June 22, 1934, Serial No. 731,988 Renewed December 14, 19357 Claims.

\ This invention relates to dispensing devices, and has for an object toprovide an improved construction which is extremely simple andinexpensive and which may be adjusted to dispense 5 towels, toiletpaper, or other articles freely or at spaced intervals.

Another object of the invention is to provide a dispensing device fortowels and the like wherein certain diificulties are presented to thedispensing operation so that only those towels really needed will bedispensed to a person operating the device.

An additional object is to provide a dispensing l, device for towels andsimilar articles wherein the parts may be adjustedso that by a, singleoperationa towel may be dispensed, or may be otherwise adjustedtorequire more than one operation to dispense a single towel.

A still further object, more specifically, is to provide a dispensingdevice for dispensing paper towels wherein a reciprocating handle ispresented, the structure being such that the handle operates certainmechanism for causing a towel to be moved so that it may be grasped andpulled out of the device.

In the accompanying drawings- Figure 1 is a longitudinal verticalsectional view through a dispensing device disclosing an embodiment ofthe invention, the section being taken approximately on the line li ofFigure Figure 2 is a view similar to the central part of' Fig. 1, butshowing the gripping members in their first gripping position;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but showing the gripping members atthe completion of the first operation of the device;

Figure 4 is a sectional view through Fig. 5 approximately on the linel4,' illustrating how the reciprocating member shown in Figs. 1 and 3functions to rotate the gripping members;

Figure 5 is a front view of the structure shown in Fig. 1 but with thefront plate broken away and parts of the casing and frame shown insection;

' Figure 6 is a detailed elevation of one of the gear wheels shown inFig. 4;

Figure 7 is a sectional view through Fig. 6 on the line '!l; and

Figure 8 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 4 but showing a slightlymodified construction.

,In the vending of paper towels and similar articles it has beencustomary heretofore to provide either means whereby the towels may bequickly and successively pulled from the device, ormeans whereby a towelmay be released by the pressure of a button. In either of these devices,or other devices now on the market, a person may quickly secure one ortwo or more towels from the device. Where towels are supplied free,persons carelessly and without consideration to the owner of the device,will remove four or five towels when drying the hands where probablyhalf that number would be sufiicient. This is a waste of towels andconsequently a considerable expense to the owner. In the presentinvention means have been provided for dispensing as many towels as aredesired, the structure beingsuch that it may be adjusted to requireconsiderable effort to secure more than one towel. Consequently,careless or thoughtless persons who would ordinarily remove four or fivetowels must make this additional effort in orderto secure this number oftowels. The arrangement affords a check or retarding action against suchpersons and,consequently,.the per,- son seeking to remove towels fromthe device will usually remove only as many towels as he actually needs,causing much less waste.

As shown in the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 illustrates anembodiment of the invention wherein there is provided a casing l whichis divided into two parts, the outer part being pivotally mounted on thepin 3 and overlapping the flange 4 at the top. A suitable lock may beprovided adjacent vflange 4 to prevent accidental opening of section 2.The opening of this section is desirable for the purpose of examinationor to replenish the stock of towels from time to time. As shown inFigure 1, the space 5 may be termed a towel chamber for the reception ofa number of towels 6. Arranged below this cham'- ber is the mechanismused for feeding the towels out of the device. It will be understoodthat all the towels may be fed out of the device in successive orderwithout stopping the machine, if this is so desired. However, the partshave been so adjusted that it will require some little time and effortto secure any appreciable number of towels. This arrangement acts asmeans for preventing waste, though it does not in any way prevent thedesired use of the towels.

Arranged in the casing I at the lower part and, in a certain sense,filling the lower part of the casing is a frame 1 which may be securedto the casing by any desired means, for instance, by soldering, rivetsor the like. The frame 1 is provided with guiding plates 8 and 9 wherebya discharge chute H) is presented. These plates are secured to the endplates l I and I2 (Fig. 5) which end plates are connected by solderingor otherwise to the side of the casing but are not connected to theouter wall 2 as this wall (2) is swung on the pin 3 when it is desiredto reload the device. It will readily be seen that the casing 5including the front wall 2 is of substantially the normal shape ofcasings for dispensing towels now on the market. The top I3 is madeslanting so that articles cannot be readily laid thereon, while thebottom is open, as shown in Figure l. Regardless of whether the casingisa new or old type the interior mechanism forming the present inventionwill function, including the plates 8 and 9 forming parallel and guidingwalls so that the passageway it) is presented through which the varioustowels 6 are forced. The walls 3 and 9 are integral with or rigidlysecuredto the end plates I l and I2 and at their upper ends are flaredat i l and I5 so as to readily guide the towels as they are fed by thefeeding rollers l6 and il. As shown in the accompanying drawings, thereare only one pair of feed rollers but, if desired, more pairs could beused without departing from the spirit of the invention. Each of theserollers is provided with flat portions l8 and H9 so that when thevarious fiat portions of both rollers are in. parallelism, the adjacentfiat portions will be spaced apart approximately the distance equalt'o'the width of the discharge chute or passageway H3. Roller I5 isrigidly secured to shaft 20, while roller l! is rigidly secured to shaft26. These shafts are journaled in suitable journal blocks 21 and 22, asshown in Fig. 5. It Will be notedthat the shafts 20 and 20' carrying therollers l5 and Ill are journaled inidentically shaped blocks 2i and. 22soldered or otherwise rigidly secured to the end plates l1 and I8. Gearwheels 23 and 24 are rigidly secured to the shafts 20 and 28 andnaturally operate in Lmison there with. These gear wheels are eachprovided with flattened sections .24. and 25, th'eflattened por tions ofthe gear wheels being always in the same plane as the flattened portionson rollers, l6 and H. A sliding rack bar 26 coacts with the gear wheels23 and 26, said sliding rack barbeing carried by the brackets 27 and 28formed integral with or rigidly secured to the plate 1 l, as shown inFig. 5. Suitable apertures are provided in these brackets through whichthe bar slides. H

A spring 29 surrounds the bar .26 at the upper part and. continuallypresses against the, pin 30 and bracket 28 to urge the bar to remain invits upper position and to return to this position when released. A pin3| acting as a stop is carried by the bracket 28 and normally restsagainst the under surface of bracket 28., .A handle 32 is rigidlysecured to the bar 26, extends through the aperture 33 in plate l l andalso through aperture 34 in the side of casing l, so that the handle maybereadily grasped when the device is in use and may be forced downwardlyas. often as desired. After the handle has been forced downwardly it isreleased and, the spring 29 quickly raises the same so that it may belowered, a second time or as often as desired. Upon eachdownwardmovement of the handle the rollers i6 and I! will move from the positionshown. in Fig. 1 to that shown in Fig. 2, then to the dotted positionshown in Fig. 3, and finally tolthe. full line position (Fig. 3). Whenthe bar'23reaches the full line position it is released from the. gearwheels 23 and 24 and the spring 29Hwill quickly move thebar to its upperposition. l

As illustrated in Figs. 4, 6 and 7, it will be noted that'the bar26"is..provided with pins; 35 and 36 so as to. strike the respectivecams.31, 38, 39, and

43. Cams 3! and 33 are carried by gear wheels 33, while similar cams arecarried by the gear wheels 34. As shown in Figs, 6 and 7 the cams 317and 38 are pivotally mounted on pins 4! and E2 in suitable apertures 43and 44 formed in the wheel 23. The flat springs 43 and 46 are positionedso as to urge the cams 31 and38 to the position. shown in Fig. 7, sothatthe respective surfaces ll and 28 will always be in a position to beengaged bythe pins 35. The gear wheels 24 and associated parts are madeidentical to that shown in Figs. 6 and '7 and the same description andnumerals will apply thereto. When the parts are in the position shown inFig. 4 they will also be in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 5. Bymoving the handle 32 downwardly the bar 26 will be moved downwardly fromthe position shown in Figs. 1 and 4 until it eventually reaches theposition shown in Fig. 3. The first movement of the bar causes the pins36 and 31 to swing the gear wheels 23 and 22 around so that the teeththereof will mesh with the respective teeth 49 and. 5B of the bar 26. Bythe time bar 26 reaches its extreme lowest position as shown in Fig. 3,the gear wheels will be turned to such an extent that the flat portions24 and 25 of the wheels 23 and 24 will be brought opposite the rackteeth 49 and 53, thus freeing the bar 26 from the gear wheels andpermitting the spring 29 to function as soon ashandle 32 is released.When the rack bar 26 moves upwardly to its extreme upward position thepins 35 and 35 Will ride over the inclined surfacesof the cams 31 and)so that'they may operate on the faces 48 upon the next downward movementof the bar. By this construction and arrangement it will be seen thatthe gear wheels, shafts 22 and 20' and associated parts may be given apartial revolution upon each downward movement of the handle 32, andthis action may take place as often as desired. In carrying out i and 27grip the towel very much as if a persons 1 hands were inserted, thefingers pressed against the bottom of the towel and then pulleddownwardly. This action is repeated until thetowel is extending belowthe casing I. The towel then may' be grasped and quickly pulled from thedevice. As just mentioned, the proportions are such that it will requirefour downward movementsof the handle 32 to cause one towel to projectbelow the casing. If one towel is sufficient for the persons needs, nofurther actuation of the device will be required. 7 If another towel isdesired it will be necessary to move the handle 32 downwardly four moretimes before a second towel is dispensed. This in a certain senseretards and discourages the unnecessary use of towels, thus preventingwaste of the towels, but does not prevent a person from receiving asmany towels as he desires if he needs them sufiiciently to operate thedevice the necessary number of times. There are on the market many typesof towels one of which is quite suificient to dry the hands thoroughly.Some people require asecond towel to complete the drying operation, andby the use of the device disclosed a second towel may be secured by thedownward movement of the handle four times.

- When the device is to be adjusted to require a more or less number ofoperations of the handle 32 to dispense a towel, the only change that isnecessary is .to remove the rollers NS and IT and substitute. newrollers which will be smaller in casemore movements'of' the handle aredesired, and larger in case less movements are desired; Where this takesplace the plates 2| and 22 must be shifted'to a new'position. Ordinarilythe adjustment takes place at the factory, and the person desiring adispensing device of this kind will specify whether one, two, three orfour downward movements of the handle are desired for the dispensing ofa single towel-1 The factory will then install the propersi'ze ofrollers and ship the complete device-to its destination. After thedevice has been in use for sometime, should it be necessary to changethe size of the rollers; this work may be performed at the place ofbusiness, but preferably the entire device is sent back to the factoryand the change made there. 1

In Fig.8 will be seen a slightlymodified con struction wherein the sameprinciple is utilized, but instead of using the swinging cams andassociated parts, there are provided stationary cams 31', 38, 39' and40'. Instead of having pins 35 and 36, as shown in Fig. 4, there isprovided a spring '5l which is riveted or otherwise rigidly secured at52 to the' bar 26, said spring having laterally extending arms and 36'which act in place of the pins 35-and 3B. "When the bar 36 movesupwardly these arms, by reason of the resiliency of spring 5|, willslide over the cams and snap into position above the cams, and move 35the cams and gear wheelsori the downward movement.

I claim:

1. A dispensing device for dispensing towels and the like, comprising acasing provided with an upper and lower compartment, said uppercompartment being provided to carry a supply of towels to be dispensed,said lower compartment being adapted to receive mechanism for forcingone towel at a time from the upper compartment 5 to a discharge point,said mechanism including a pair of towel gripping and feeding members,and means for actuating the gripping and feeding members, said actuatingmeans including a pair of mutilated gears connected with said feeding 5members, a bar having oppositely facing teeth forming a rack, said rackbeing positioned to engage both of said gears simultaneously foractuating said gears, and a spring actuated stop carried by each of saidgears, and pins carried by 55 said rack and positioned to engage saidstops at the beginning of each cycle of operation of the rack forthrowing the gears into mesh with the rack upon each complete cycle ofreciprocation of the rack, whereby said feeding means will be actuatedonce on each forward movement of the rack.

2. A device of the character described, including a casing for thereception of towels, and means for feeding the towels from the casing,said means including a pair of rollers, each roller having the surfacemutilated so as to present a pair of parallel flat portions on theperiphery, a gear wheel connected with each of said rollers, each ofsaid gear wheels having a periphery mutilated to pre- 7 sent a pair offiat portions, the flat portions on the rollers being in alignment withthe flat portions on the gear wheels, a rack for actuating said gearwheels, said rack rotating said gear wheels substantially one-half arevolution upon each 7 movement in one direction and moving between theflattened portions of the gear wheels on the return movement, means foractuating said rack, and means partly carried by the gear wheels andpartly by the rack for turning the gear wheels suificien'tly to meshwith the rack upon each movement of the rack in one direction.

3. A dispensing device for dispensing paper towels and the like,comprising a casing formed with a chamber for receiving a supply oftowels, a pair of feeding rollers positioned to operate at the samepoint in the path of the towels fed from said chamber, said rollersrotating in opposite directions simultaneously and in the same phase,said rollers gripping and feeding said towels. to a discharge point,each of said rollers having a pair of flat portions, each fiat portionoccupying approximately one-quarter of the peripheral surface of theroller whereby when said rollers are'rotated the towel will beintermittentlyg'ripped and pulled forwardly by the surfaces of therollers not flattened upon each half revolutionof the respectiverollers, a shaft rigidly secured to each of said rollers for rotatingthe same, a gear wheel rigidly secured to each of said shafts, a doubletoothed rack for simultaneously engaging and rotating said gear-wheelsin opposite directions, and a manually actuated member for causing saidrack to function.

4. A dispensing device for dispensing paper towels and the like,comprising a casing having a. compartment for'thereception of the papertowels, and means for forcing the towels from the casing, said meansincluding a pair of gripping and feeding rollers positioned to grip andthen move the towels toward the discharge point upon each actuation ofthe rollers, a shaft for each of the rollers for rotatably supportingthe same, a gear Wheel rigidly secured to each of said shafts, each ofsaid gear wheels having a pair of flat portions of the periphery, saidflat portions being parallel, a pair of spring pressed abutments carriedby each of said gear wheels, said abutments being adjacent the flatportions of the gear wheels, a bar formed as a rack having two rows ofteeth, there being one row of teeth on each 1 side of the bar with therespective rows facing in opposite directions, a pair of pins carried bysaid bar and positioned to engage said spring pressed abutments on eachmovement of the bar, said abutments being adapted to cause said gearwheels to turn to a driving engagement with the teeth on the bar whenpressed by said pins in one direction, and adapted to yield when pressedby said pins in the opposite direction for preventing engagement of therack and gear wheels during the return movement of said rack, and a handoperated member for causing said rack to function.

5. A dispensing device for towels, said device including a casing forthe reception of towels, means for feeding said towels from the casing,said means including means forming a passageway of a given length, saidpassageway having openings at opposite sides near one end, a pair offeeding rollers adapted to rotate in opposite directions, each of saidfeeding rollers having a pair of parallel flat portions on theperiphery, the portions of the rollers not flattened being of a size tomove through the said openings and to move a towel extending into saidpassageway along the passageway a distance equal to the peripheralsurface of the unfiattened part of the rollers, a gear wheel connectedwith each roller, each of said gear wheels having a pair of mutilatedportions, said mutilated portions presenting fiat surfaces on theperiphery and arranged in parallelism, the toothed portions and the fiatportions of said gear wheels being in exact align- I ment withcorresponding portions of said rollers,

5 there'being one gear wheel for each roller and a double rack engagingsaid gear wheels for actuating the same, said fiat portions on thelflattened sides of the gear wheels after each actuation of the gearwheels. coming into parallel relation so 1 that the double rack may movebetween the gear Wheels without engaging the same on the returnmovement, and means on the rack and the gear wheels coacting for causingthe teeth on the double rack to engage the teeth on the gear wheels onthe other movement of the double rack as it reciprocates, the teeth onthe double rackiacing in opposite directions and causing simultaneousmovement of the gear wheels; said rollers, the length of said passagewayand the length of the towels being soproportioned that it will requiremore than one actuation of said rollers to move a towel through saidpassageway.

6. A closed dispensing cabinet for dispensing a stack of interfoldedpaper towels in sequence, comprising a casing, said casing having a pairof downwardly sloping bottom portions for supporting a stack of towels,said bottom portions being spaced apart at their lower edges to form adischarge passage which extends across the casing at the bottom thereofand into which the leading edge of a towel is'drawn by the withdrawal ofa preceding towel, multi-step mechanism operative only after a pluralityof repeated operations thereof to render the leading edge of one towelaccessible at said discharge passage,

and a freely reciprocating manually manipulable member for impartingmotion to said multi-step mechanism to render the same effective to giveaccess to a towel only after a plurality of repeated and discontinuousmanual reciprocations thereof, said manually manipulable member in-,cluding a portion accessible at the exterior of said cabinet.

7. A closed dispensing cabinet for dispensing a stack of inter-foldedpaper towels in sequence, comprising a casing, said casing having a pairof downwardly sloping bottom portions for supporting a stack of towels,said bottom portions at their lower edges being spaced apart and beingextended in spaced substantially parallel relation to form an elongateddischarge passage which extends transversely across the casing at thebottom thereof and into which the leading edge of a towel is drawn bythe withdrawal of a preceding towel, multi-step mechanism operative onlyafter a plurality of repeated operations thereof to render the leadingedge of one towel accessible at the outer end of said discharge passage,and a freely reciprocable manually manipulable member for impartingmotion to said multi-step mechanism to render the same efiective to giveaccess to a towel only after a plurality of repeated and discontinuousmanual reciprocations thereof, said manually manipulablevmemberincluding a portion accessible at the exterior of said cabinet and meansfor returning the same to its normal position after each actuationthereof.

RICHARD C. KETTI'LES, JR.

